Holly’s Happenings

I am, without a doubt, a frugal shopper! Before I do any type of shopping, I go online and look at the sales ads for the stores in my area to see who is going to have the lowest price for what I’m shopping for! This is especially important right now because I have to make every penny count!

Later this week I have to do some serious grocery shopping, my cabinets, fridge and freezer are really looking bad! So I hopped online earlier to see what’s on sale at my local grocery stores. I was able to grab a few AMAZING deals last weekend at a store I normally don’t shop at, so I made sure to head over and check their sales ad for this week. All I can say is WOW, am I ever glad I did that! They’re having a HUGE sale this week on tons of the stock up type items that I need the most! By huge sale I mean that they are offering OODLES of items 10 for $10 and you get an 11th item free. The really cool thing is that you can mix or match the items, so you don’t have to buy 10 of a certain item if you really don’t need 10 of them!

So I went through their sales ad, as well as the sales ads of the other stores I like to grocery shop at and made myself a list! I about choked when my printer finished printing it out and I seen that I had almost 5 pages of stuff that I wanted to pick up…LOL! I doubt I’ll be able to get all of the items I want, but at least I know where I’m going to be able to get the items I want and need the most at the best possible price!

My husband and I had to run into town last night to take care of a couple of bills and pick up a few odds and ends that we had forgotten to pick up when we were grocery shopping Wednesday evening. When we were on our way home I asked him to stop at a local home improvement store because I needed to pick up some bird seed and check prices on a few different things I needed for the house.

When I got to the bird seed aisle I seen there was a man there checking out bird feeders and he was looking at one like the one of mine that I totally don’t like. So, I decided I’d offer him my thoughts and experiences with it and hoped that he’d be receptive to them. Surprisingly he was not only receptive, but I actually ended up talking to him about bird feeders and the different types of seed for quite a while. I explained to him about all the different types of birds that I get at my feeders with the inexpensive bird seed that I’ve been using, and I also told him about what a pain I thought the specific feeder he was first looking at was. I then pointed out a different feeder that I have three of, that was actually a third of the price. He was kind of surprised that a very inexpensive feeder had such a good “review”, but it is honestly the best of all the different feeders that I have!

When he and I were finished talking I went to check out the pre cut counter tops and see if they had any six footers that I liked and was totally shocked to see that the price on them had actually gone down quite a bit since the last time I priced them! I was hoping I would be able to get the counter top and post legs that I need for it this week, but unfortunately it’s just not in the budget this week, so I am going to have to put it off for a few more weeks!

The only thing left to do was pick up some paint sample swatches and check out with my lonely little bag of bird seed…LOL! As we walked into a check out lane, we had an older woman jump in front of us. She had several things in her cart, but I didn’t think too much of it until she turned and looked at us and said “That’s my husband behind you, could you please let him through”. My husband and I both turned to look and were greeted with an older man with one of those utility type carts that LOADED with all types of wood and lumber. You could tell he felt a bit embarrassed by the fact that she had jumped in line in front of us and he did try to apologize. I just looked at him and said it wasn’t his fault his wife was a bwitch….LOL!

I know saying that wasn’t the nicest thing for me to say, but it was MUCH nicer than what I wanted to do! There was a display with wall sconces at the end of the aisle and what I wanted to do was throw them all at her….LOL. We had a single item, a measly bag of bird seed, and between she and her husband they had a few hundred dollars worth of items. If the situation would have been switched, I’d have made sure she went through before I did! But I guess that’s just how I am.

I managed to drive up to Michigan Saturday morning in the midst of a snow storm to meet my mom for some shopping and spend time with her. My mom is just a couple of months away from becoming a great grandmother for the 2nd time and I swear if you didn’t know other wise you’d thinkit was her very first grandchild that was about to come into the world…LOL!

Since Christmas has been over my mom has been out buying everything a baby will need from clothes, diapers and bibs to bottles, burp wrags and toys. It’s nice to see mom get this excited over stuff, it gives her something to do other than work for a change! And as surprising as it is, my niece wasn’t too upset over finding out that her second child is another boy. I know that she reallly had her hopes up that it would be a girl this time, but she’s just as excited that her son that just turned two is going to have a little brother!

And as always, when I go to the hospital to see the baby after it’s born, I’ll have to say the line that I stole from Monica on Friends, “I’m your great Aunt Holly and I’ll always have gum”, LOL!!

Since we know we’re going to have to replace our router this week, hubby and I have spent some time today looking around on line trying to decide whether or not we should consider going with a wireless router this time around. I posted this question with my concerns at a message board I frequent and got some EXCELLENT information, and found out several things about wireless routers that I honestly didn’t know about!

For instance, I had NO idea that wireless routers also offer wired ports, which is a HUGE plus because it would offer us the ability to go back to wired if we found that wireless just didn’t work well for us! I was also thrilled to hear from several people about how well their wireless routers allow connections in various areas of homes that are much bigger than ours as well as outside of their homes! I also got a comment there from someone that had actually just recommended a wireless router to a friend of theirs. The router was from the same company as the routers we’ve owned and had awesome luck with and the price was AWESOME! Since I have a couple of days until payday that will give me plenty of time to shop around and find out where I can get the best buy on that router or at least one similar to it!

I was talking to my mom on the phone this morning and she asked me if I wanted the set of matching recliners she has in the living room. Well of course I did, they’re awesome recliners and would look great in the front living room. But when I asked her why she was getting rid of them, what she told me completely put me in shock!

My mom is your typical “old school” person and has had the same furniture in her living room for over 30 years. Now, before you go EWWWWWWW you need to know that other than being a little faded from the sun, the furniture is in near mint condition. It’s still very comfortable to sit on and has no holes or signs of being thread bare at all. And since she just turned 70, I honestly did not expect to hear her say that the reason for getting rid of the recliners was because she finally decided it was time to replace her 30+ year old furniture. What shocked me even more was that later, when I was talking to my sister about it, my sister said that the new furniture our mom picked out is a more contemporary furniture style, which she said she couldn’t believe mom chose…LOL! Way to go mom!!

Yes, I know, that’s a phrase made popular by a frog, but in all honesty, it needs to be a phrase made popular by people as well! Our environment needs us to give it a hand by changing things that we do and how we do them! As consumers, we can make small changes in the products we use and the way that we do things that will greatly help our environment and the world around us. Simple things like reusing plastic water bottles by refilling them, rather than throwing them away. Did you know that by purchasing an on the tap water filter and refilling your water bottles you not only save money on the cost of purchasing more bottled water, but you also reduce the amount of trash that goes into landfills.

Companies like GreenAndMore.com are helping consumers educate themselves about the things that they can do to help our environment. They offer hundreds of top rated eco friendly green products on their website ranging from things like cleaning products and solar lighting to bedding and home decor. They also have a section of their website that gives consumers all kinds of information about things like recycling for businesses and consumers, energy efficiency, green building and renovation and many other topics about being earth friendly.

Besides giving consumers information and products that will help them live a greener life, GreenAndMore.com also lives their mission of being green by following green practices in the running of their company. They make sure that they use no plasticware, they use recycled office goods and they ship their products in cardboard boxes that are made from 100% recycled materials. They also support various environmental charities like Oceana and Healthy Child Healthy World.

Above and beyond the vast array of green products they offer, I think the part of their website I enjoy the most is their Green Learning Center. It is a wealth of information on everything that we need to do in order to lead green lives and is filled with the most top notch articles available from places like the EPA and US Dept. of Energy. And they are offering 10% off your purchase when you shop from their website. What could be better than going green AND saving money in the process?

Hello everyone and happy Thanksgiving Eve!  I hope that your week has gone well and that your Thanksgiving plans are well under way!  Our Thanksgiving plans have changed twice this week…LOL!  Initially we’ve been planning on having Thanksgiving dinner at my sisters house, but a few things happened this week and we had to cancel those plans.  So then we were just going to have our own dinner here at the house.  But then something else happened and we ended up changing our plans to just have dinner here and we’re now going back up to my sisters house tomorrow…LOL!  I know, we can’t make up our minds, can we?

Tonight we ran into town and picked up the things I need to make what I’m taking to my sisters for dinner tomorrow.  I’m making green bean casserole, sweet potatoes and the bread and rolls.  I was initially going to do all of the bread and rolls from scratch, but I found a few things tonight that made me decide to make them partially from scratch.  They’ll still be as good, they just won’t require as much work on my part tomorrow morning!

Tomorrow night I’ll spend the night at my moms house so that mom, me and my sister can drag our butts out and hit the stores as they start opening at 4:00 AM Friday morning.  This has been an annual “tradition” for the  three of us for 27 years now, with me only missing one year.  I even went the year that I was 8.9 months pregnant…LOL!  Fortunately we don’t stand outside in line for hours before the stores open anymore, we simply wait until the doors open and allow the initial rush to get through.  But with mom pushing 70, me in my mid 40’s and my sister pushing 40, none of us are any too thrilled with the thought of standing outside in the freezing cold for hours any longer!  By the time I get home Friday I’ll hit the couch and sleep for a few hours because I’ll be completely exhausted!   But hey, that’s the fun of it, isn’t it?

I like putting fun things in my kids stockings, you know, the things that they never think about putting on their wish lists? This year is going to be no exception! Since the kids are older I have to get more creative since they’ve out grown many of the different types of stocking stuffers I’ve used in the past!

Since the kids are into electronics and they both recently got new cell phones, I’m thinking I’ll get them some fun cell phone accessories for their new phones! My son would love an awesome case for his phone and I heard him asking his dad about Bluetooth headsets, so since the price has really dropped on those lately, that would be a great stocking stuffer!

My daughter is into this “all things cute and pink” stage, which is weird for me because she’s always been a major tomboy! So I’m going to grab a cute pink cell phone case as well as some cute charms for her cell phone!

Yes, I’ll be the first to agree that the jolly old guy makes the Christmas holiday special as well as making kids scream with glee! But when it comes to finding great deals on my special holiday gifts, I’ve found a different source! So Santa, as much as I love you, I’ll take care of the gifts for my family and friends this year and give you a break for a change!

Other than my traditional day after Thanksgiving, wee hours of the morning shopping dash with my mom and sister, I’ve decided that I’m going to do my Christmas shopping online this year! And why wouldn’t I when CouponChief.com offers me the ability to shop at my favorite online retailers with some of the best discounts available?

For instance, one of the items that is at the top of my daughters “have to have” list is an iPod. With the help of CouponChief.com’s Apple Coupons I can get a heck of a deal on either shipping or a refurbished iPod. At the top of my son’s list is a new computer since his is currently on it’s last leg!! CouponChief.com gives me several options to save money on a new computer with coupons from HP and Dell.

So no matter what type of gift you plan on purchasing your that special person in your life, CouponChief.com is sure to have a great discount for it! I highly recommend that you check them out before you start your shopping, because as fun as it is to find that perfect gift, it’s even more fun to save some cash in the process!!!

Although you won’t find me doing too much complaining about living in the country, there is one thing that definitely needs to be improved! My husband and I have cellular phones from 2 different carriers and neither one of us can get service on our cellular phones when we’re in the house. For me, it’s not that big of a deal because I really don’t get that many calls on my cell phone, but 99% of my husband’s work related calls are done through his cell phone. We’ve decided that we’re going to look into a cell phone booster for the house, from what we here, it just might do the trick!

I swear my daughter starts her Christmas list the day after Christmas each year. It’s almost comical, but it gets annoying too. Especially when she comes up to me in mid July and says “Mom, I know what I want for Christmas this year”. What she doesn’t know is that I want to make this Christmas one that she won’t forget, and I have the perfect gift in mind. No, it’s not an MP3 player or anything computer related. I’m actually looking at a very pretty pink pearl necklace, that I have no doubt she will love!

As I’m sure you know, today is November 1st. That means that just 4 weeks from today is Thanksgiving! And four weeks after Thanksgiving is Christmas! And do you know what that means? That means that you need to get your Christmas shopping started SOON! Although I haven’t started my shopping, I have started making lists of what gifts I want to get. At the top of things to get for my hubby is a new watch, and I found several awesome Luminox watches that I know he’d love. Now I just have to narrow it down to which specific one I think he’d like best!

My husband is, without a doubt, a wrist watch addict! Every time we go shopping he is looking at the watches on display, and usually getting a new one. Yesterday, while we were taking a break from unpacking, I caught him looking at watches online. Now mind you, the watches he was looking at were not your ordinary, run of the mill watches. Oh no, he was looking at Vacheron Constantin wrist watches. He tired to give me the “If you REALLY loved me…” look, but as anyone who knows me knows, it didn’t even come close to working…LOL! But I do admit, if I had the extra cash, it would make a beautiful gift for him for his upcoming birthday!

Yes, today is the first day of Autumn, I know that. But do you know that 3 months and 2 days from today is Christmas? NO? Well then you’d better get busy because if you put it off until the last minute all of those great christmas gift ideas you’ve had since last Christmas won’t matter. Because if you keep putting your Christmas shopping off, you’ll have to run to the local Quik-E-Mart on Christmas Eve and get something that no one would want as a Christmas gift.

I’ve never been a person that has enjoyed going to the stores and going shopping. I dislike crowds and grumpy people and not being able to find what I want. Even if I go to a mall, where you can supposedly find everything you need, I still end up not being able to find what I want in the first store I go to, which means walking in circles to other stores until I eventually find what I’m looking for. I’d much rather just go to an online clothing store where I can search for what I want and see if it comes in the color and/or size I need in a matter of just a few minutes time! It’s so much easier!

OK ladies, we’re only a few weeks away from Sweetest Day, so it’s time to get busy! It’s time to start dropping those hints so that our guys don’t end up giving us something like a new vacuum cleaner or a lovely blender. We need to start dropping hints so that our guys will come home with chocolates, flowers and jewelry instead! I mean, come on, what would you rather tell your friends, “My guy got me a new mixer for Sweetest Day”, or “My guy got me a beautiful pair of diamond earrings”?

Well, not actually gone, because I’m doing it from the comfort of my own home at my own desk. Which is why I love shopping online so much! The temperature outside today is a balmy 90 degrees, with humidity nearing 60%, in other words, not my kind of weather! Since my financial aid will be here in the next week I’ve decided to go ahead and start shopping for my laptop. I know what I need and I know what I want, so the next thing for me to do is find out where I can get it for the best price.

Now, being the shopper that I am, as well as a penny pincher, one of the first things I did was look for online coupons that will save me some money or enable me to get something a little better. The first coupon I found was at BestBuy.com. They have several laptops on sale and several models that are offering an additional $150 off, which would allow me to upgrade to more memory and still get a laptop at a decent price.

Next I headed over to Dell.com to see what they had to offer. The only thing they are currently offering is $350 off an Inspiron desktop over $999, and since I’m not looking for a desktop that won’t help me, but maybe it will help you! Finally I headed over to Overstock.com where I found several coupons; one offering 7% off my total purchase, once for $40 off any purchase of $350 or more, and another offering free shipping for new customers with orders over $50.

I plan to keep shopping because I haven’t quite found exactly what I want yet. But I’m definitely going to watch for online coupons that will help me save some money, because we all know that saving money is definitely a good thing!

Yes, I know, I do have a beautiful desk already! And I’m very appreciative of it! But, since there are now 4 of us in one home going to school right now, I’m finding more and more that people are coming up here to my office because of the fact that it’s such a good study atmosphere! So although my desk is just fine for me, when there is more than just me here studying it’s just not enough room. I’ve been looking online for office furniture and think that a nice modular desk would be a good option that would give me more room up here when someone else wants to study with me!

Between his job and his classes my hubby has to haul his tools all over the place these days. While it’s not a bad thing, it is kind of a pain because his tool box isn’t in the best of shape and it would be quite embarrassing to have it fall open or bust in class or on the job site. So I’ve been looking around online for portable tool storage for him. He doesn’t want anything fancy, just something sturdy that will carry what he needs to have with him.

Here I am getting ready to take a vacation to Florida in less than 6 months and it just hit me that I have no real luggage to speak of. I have one, what I would call, “real” suitcase and that’s it. And no matter how hard I try, there is no way I’m packing for 4 people for 10 days in that one piece of luggage. So I need to shop for some luggage. I found some good deals on Samsonite luggage, so that’s probably what I’m going to buy!